Yeah it was a non-stop.
I have flown across the Pacific with a bike some years ago, and never had a problem, just turning the handlebars and removing the pedals - except when they make you deflate the tires.
The tire nick -gouge is more like it - probably didn't have anything to do with deflating the tires - I think it must have been crammed in with some other oversized baggage and something scraped the sidewall. It ended up costing me a day in Amsterdam hunting for a tire on a Sunday - but if I had to choose someplace to be stranded, it would be Amsterdam.
Transat were very anal about weighing everybodys' baggage and charging extra at Schiphol, but my bike box, crammed with tools and extra camping gear, flew for free.
I don't want to be too hard on them, it was several hundred dollars cheaper than Air Canada and it was a non-stop. Next time I will just be a bit better prepared.